then zander bruce wrote a two-partmemoir about his experiences with BFS, from punter to chairman of the board — literally. it was so raw, so balls-out vulnerable, so open for the taking… so everything i love and hope our lauf is.

i got more interested in the BFS after finding zander, and being able to chat with him on facebook and in e mail. he was open and generous. his facebook posts were sometimes hilariously graphic.

now you never know what you’re going to get in this world when you do it, but i’m a big believer in asking for what i want. and i asked zander — what ARE those things made of? and, like so many things we’ve found this way — and shared — “trade secrets” really aren’t that protected in festal culture. and so zander gave me the magic password, which was: withies.

easy enough to get in the UK, these withies, but nobody ships ’em overseas. it took a bit of work to find a US seller (who is actually a british woman in new york state) and so not only did we get to play with dried withies to start, but saw that live cuttings for cultivation were for sale. i thought… why not grow our own? after all, liberty lands is a park full of gardens.

so we did it.

watering was the best part.

by an odd coincidence, our krampuslauf fire dancers, lux arati, were in the park as well, making a video!

that made it extra fun.

krampuslauf happenings in early may, just as the world is coming into bloom. it was a lovely day. and i am happy to name our garden after our overseas friend zander, who inspired me and skilled us!